The
monk is an offensive fighter and an expert in the martial arts. Monks
will specialize in spotting, causing and taking advantage of enemy
weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Monks will choose between three
different martial arts styles that will provide them with specialized
attacks and unique abilities. In addition, Monks will have general
attacks and attack chains independent of their chosen martial arts
style.

Strength and dexterity are the Monk's primary attributes. Strength helps the Monk do as
much
damage as possible. Dexterity gives him a greater chance of landing
critical melee hits. Some Monks then choose vitality for greater regeneration in
combat to use abilities more often. Others choose constitution to be better at off-tanking.

Building a good Monk takes some careful planning at the
character
creation screen and requires you to learn a handful of tactics in the
lower levels.

Selecting
the Right Race

Monks of all races start with the same attributes, but the
choice
of race can affect how many points the Monk automatically gets placed
into its prime attributes.

Each character
gets 20 attribute
points
(AP) per level, starting at level 10. 6 of your AP are placed
for you automatically--one per attribute (STR, CON, DEX, VIT, INT,
WIS). 4 points are assigned to attributes based on your race if you are
not a human (humans are kojani, mordebi, qaliathari, and thestran).
You can
place 10 (14 for humans) wherever you want to within soft caps of 5 per
level.

Additionally,
characters get
racial bonuses to their soft caps. These
are called preferred stats and allow characters of a race to flesh out
in a way that reflects the traits of the race. Non-human races get 4
bonus points to soft caps (usually two or three attributes only) while
human
races get 6, 1 for each attribute. Thus, a human can be more balanced,
while a non-human becomes more specialized.

The table below shows the attribute scores at level 50 before
gear
and buffs for
the Monk based on the race selected. We've highlighted the best
results for each of the primary attributes for you. It is possible to
reach the soft cap for three attributes as a human, but those soft caps
may be lower than those attainable by other races.

Racial
Abilities

The other important factor to consider when picking the race for your
Monk is racial abilities. With their short durations and long
recasts,
racial abilities are less important than attributes in the selection
process, but they can be used to pick between races that are otherwise
equal. The racial abilities are listed below.

Kojani:
Spirit of Jin

This ability will immediately restore 45% of energy and hit points to
the target. This ability has a diminishing effect on any target that
has benefitted from this ability (used by another player) in the last
10 minutes. Recast is 30 minutes.

Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.

Crafting: +10 Ingenuity

Harvesting: +5 Lumberjacking

Goblin: Hex of Ghalnn

Whoever is afflicted by this hex will return 3% of the mana and hit
points for every hit that is made on them. The effect lasts for 60
seconds. Recast is 15 minutes.

Small Race: 2% bonus to evasion

Crafting: +10 Reasoning

Harvesting: +5 MiningHalf
Elf: Symbol of Jin

This ability will apply a rune to every member of the group for 60
seconds, which will mitigate damage by 15%. Recast is 30 minutes.

Human Ingenuity: + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.

Crafting: +10 Finesse

Harvesting: +5 Skinning
Orc: Fury of Ghalnn

For the next 7 seconds after this ability is activated, you will
receive a 10% increase to damage and 100% of all the damage you do will
return to you in the form of hit points. Recast is 15 minutes.

While this ability is active, you will gain a 50% mitigation to all
spell damage. Recast is 30 minutes.

Animal Reflexes: 10% bonus to run speed.

Crafting: +10 Reasoning

Harvesting: +5 Reaping
Qaliathari:
Swiftness of the Sands

For this next 10 seconds, you will evade all melee attacks and spells.
Recast is 30 minutes.

Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.

Crafting: +10 Ingenuity

Harvesting: +5 Lumberjacking
Dark Elf: Spawn of Haelufir

This ability allows you to summon forth a small drake for a short
duration. The type of drake you summon will be based on class and
level. Each type of drake will have a variety of effects at their
disposal, ranging from group auras, to breath attacks. The
higher
level drakes will also learn spells that are sympathetic with their
associated class. Recast is 30 minutes.

Elven Wisdom: 2% reduction in mana cost

Crafting: +10 Finesse

Harvesting: +5 SkinningMordebi:
Curse of the
Ancients

This ability stuns the target for 8 seconds,
and reduces the aggro range to 0. The target will not assist/aggro
while
stunned, and the effect does not generate any aggro. Recast is 30
minutes.

Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.

Crafting: +10 Finesse

Harvesting: +5 Reaping

Level 1-10 Tactics

As a Monk you will have not have much
trouble soloing.
Leveling 1-10 you should cut down your enemies one at a time, but be
sure to
check what level your foe is, as you may find the monsters around your
level
(white con) will easily slay you. Clearly, you will also find that
monsters yellow con, and
especially red con, are a lot harder and you will need to work harder
to kill
them. Also check the dot level of monster depending on the
monster's
abilities; a 3 dot Blue con will put up a fight equivalent to (or
usually
greater than) a 2 dot Yellow con. If you want to play it safe, stick
with 2 dot
white and yellow con monsters and the occasional 3 dot blue. If you do
need to
slay a monster you cannot defeat on your own, you can always ask
another player
for help.

Monks have there ownspecial pool of
points known as Jin, which you gain by successfully performing
abilities. Some
abilities gain you more Jin points than others (you can find the Jin
gain or cost in
the abilities details). You can use your Jin points to
perform special spells
and abilities, but dont leave them unused for to long
because your Jin points
will decay overtime.

The Iron
Fists of the
Lowbie Monk

Monks can use many weapons, such as Martial Swords and Claws,
but at level 1-10 you will find that your own fists out-damage most
weapons for
your level.

You will level 1-6 quickly. Be sure
you check your Monk
trainer for new spells every1
or 2 levels. At
level 6 you will gain your first Chain ability called
Flying Kick. To use this attack, you must first gain a critical hit;
then you
will see the ability lights up and you have 10 seconds to use the
attack.
Flying Kick can hit for huge amounts of damage and it costs little
endurance, so
be sure to keep on eye on it and use when ready.
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A
basic combat tactic is to use the abilities Boundless Fist
and Crescent Kick to gain Jin before using Ashen Hand, which has a high
critical hit
chance. If you get a critical hit with Ashen Hand, then use
Flying Kick and remember to always
wait until you have full endurance before attacking a new monster.

Watch your
back!

As a Monk, you cant afford to take to many hits, so getting
attacked by two monsters at the same time can get you into a lot of
trouble. Keep an eye out for aggressive monsters around you. When
beginning a fight with
a monster, it's normally best not to charge in. Pulling a monster to
you is a lot
more effective. Monks can use shuriken ranged weapons
to hit a monster from long range, making it charge to them.
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It's important to take out the aggressive monsters in an
area first.
Look around and find those that will attack you on site and those that
will
only attack if you attack them first (To check if a monster will attack
you,
just target it. Aggressive mobs will have a red name while
non-aggressive ones
will have a white name.). Obviously, the mobs that will aggro you if
you run by
must be eliminated before you start hunting the non-aggro mobs.

If you do happen to aggro 2 monsters and you still have a good amount
of health
left, then you can use your area of effect (AoE) attacks to hit both of
them at
the same time. You can learn your first AoE attack, Whirling Storm, at
level 8. Whirling Storm does damage to all opponents within 10m, but
watch out; if
there are non-aggressive mobs around you, they will also take damage
and begin
attacking you.

About The Author

Karen is H.D.i.C. (Head Druid in Charge) at EQHammer. She likes chocolate chip pancakes, warm hugs, gaming so late that it's early, and rooting things and covering them with bees. Don't read her Ten Ton Hammer column every Tuesday. Or the EQHammer one every Thursday, either.